Canonical duality-triality theory: Bridge between nonconvex analysis/mechanics and global optimization in complex system

Canonical duality-triality is a breakthrough methodological theory, which can be used not only for modeling complex systems within a unified framework, but also for solving a wide class of challenging problems from real-world applications. This paper presents a brief review on this theory, its philosophical origin, physics foundation, and mathematical statements in both finite- and infinite-dimensional spaces. Particular emphasis is placed on its role for bridging the gap between nonconvex analysis/mechanics and global optimization . Special attentions are paid on unified understanding the fundamental difficulties in large deformation mechanics, bifurcation/chaos in nonlinear science, and the NP-hard problems in global optimization, as well as the theorems, methods, and algorithms for solving these challenging problems. Misunderstandings and confusion on some basic concepts, such as objectivity , nonlinearity, Lagrangian , and generalized convexities are discussed and classified. Breakthrough from recent challenges and conceptual mistakes by M. Voisei, C.